Remember how many bloggers and news outlets used the cliche phrase “iPhone Killer” when referring to the powerful Google Nexus One? Well it seems that analysts at Goldman Sachs overestimated the sales of the Nexus One this year just as some journalists overestimated the phone’s impact on the market. Goldman is cutting their estimates from 3.5 million handsets to just 1 million by years end due to “limited marketing and customer service challenges.”

Electronista points out that in the initial month of N1 sales Google only sold 80,000 units while Verizon sold 525,000 Moto DROIDs in the same time frame. This isn’t very surprising considering the crazy advertising and marketing blitz that Verizon unleashed on consumers that is still hitting us today. The N1 has had limited marketing, especially when it comes to prime time television, a medium that can still make or break the sales of a product. We have seen some excellent marketing tactics by HTC and Google for the N1, but they are limited to a small audience of “geeky” and tech-centric buyers like myself.

Goldman concludes that if ” Google rolls out a second Nexus handset, markets it more aggressively, and makes it available offline” that they could potentially sell around 2 million devices in 2011. Remember, the iPhone sells about 8 million units a quarter; this is also with world-wide partnerships and excellent marketing. I don’t know if the N1 could possibly get to those kind of sales but by introducing it to more carriers worldwide the N1 may still have a chance.

One Comment

I think that the N1 sales would be better compared to the MyTouch’s – the carrier is still one of the main concerns in phone purchasing, and T-mo lags far behind in that regard. I’m not saying that it’ll beat the Moto Droid – a lot of people were biding their time until an Android handset hit Verizon, and are now bound to two year contracts. However, I think you’ll see the VZW sales far outpace the T-Mo ones.